Joseon caper film Gone With the Wind is a hit

It’s a summer for caper blockbusters, and there’s a new top thief in town: Cha Tae-hyun’s sageuk action-comedy Gone With the Wind (the literal translation), aka The Grand Heist (English-language title).

The movie opened two weeks ago, and has enjoyed brisk ticket sales, reaching 3 million over the weekend. (Technically it was on Day 12; the movie reached its first milestone of 1 million tickets by Day 5, and 2 million on Day 8.) It’s still too early to predict what its final sales number will be, but on the metric of speed, it’s among the year’s fastest, reaching the 3 million point faster than other successes like Nameless Gangster (which took 17 days), All About My Wife (21 days) and Introduction to Architecture (27 days).

This is a movie I’m eager to watch (along with that other heist blockbuster The Thieves, which is still raking it in at the box office), because it looks fun and zippy. Like Thieves I don’t expect it to reinvent the wheel, and we’re all familiar with the premise — a motley group of thieves band together to pull off a large-scale job — but the Joseon background gives it a fresh new angle. Plus, it’s Cha Tae-hyun! I don’t know if there’s anything that man can’t make funny.

Here’s the trailer, which features Cha Tae-hyun, Oh Ji-ho, Min Hyo-rin et al as our crew. In this era there’s a commodity much more precious than gold, and it’s the target for our crew: ice.

Cha Tae-hyun plays Deok-mu, the intelligent illegitimate son of the high-ranking minister of the right. A political rival, the minister of the left, aims to claim the exclusive rights to control the use of ice, and Deok-mu’s father gets falsely accused of a crime as a part of his scheme. Deok-mu comes up with the plan to steal all of the ice from its securely guarded location. It’s a place that had once been under Oh Ji-ho’s (Chuno) watch, but the nefarious minister had him dismissed from his post, which makes him the perfect partner for Deok-mu’s operation.

August 19, 2012 at 3:43 PM

August 19, 2012 at 3:55 PM

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I can't believe I'm actually IN Korea now, and I can watch this at the theatre! Even if I won't understand the dialogue fully, the visuals are funny even in the trailer. And, I agree with javabeans, there is something about Cha Tae-hyun's mug that makes me want to smile every time I see him. And, Paran is in it :)

August 19, 2012 at 7:59 PM

August 21, 2012 at 8:13 AM

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I just saw this at the theatre IN Seoul! ^^ It was cute and funny and a load of fun even if I didn't understand half the dialogue.
***SPOILER ALERT: there's a cameo at the end by the very cute Song Joong-ki***

August 19, 2012 at 4:35 PM

August 19, 2012 at 4:41 PM

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The posters for this film is pretty badass.

I gotta say that Min Hyo-rin is looking hotter byt the minute. Love love LOVE Cha Tae-hyun. And man, Oh Ji Ho is so freaking pretty. I recognize a good amount of the cast so looking forward to watching this.

August 19, 2012 at 5:58 PM

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Funny enough, I randomly decided to quickly check out KBS World last night at 2:30am right before I went to sleep. The show Win Win was on and Cha Tae-hyun was on with a bunch of other guys but Tae-hyun was the focus. Even Jang Hyuk stopped by as a mystery guest. I ended up unintentionally staying awake until 4am and was dying from laughter and had tears coming out of my eyes the whole time. They were hilarious. I wanna see this movie!

August 19, 2012 at 7:27 PM

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Thank goodness!! I really wanted this movie to do well for Cha Tae Hyun's sake. I know he's half kidding when he talks about loafing at home all day (I've seen your CFs >:3), but I do worry if he can still act when he's old. I've seen his adorable kids and his dad on tv and I feel invested in seeing him be able to provide for his family comfortably in the long run. I know, I'm really weird. Really, really weird -_-" But I shouldn't have worried. With such an amazing cast, who could resist watching Gone With the Wind??

August 20, 2012 at 1:23 AM

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i think we must have watched the same interview and i feel the same about wanting him to do well! it must be really hard to have done well so early in the career and then go through this slump and perhaps believing that success is not coming again.

August 20, 2012 at 12:24 AM

August 20, 2012 at 12:42 AM

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Cha Tae-hyun is Korea's king of comedy... Right? who else can claim that title? And he's movies are so good, it doesn't just elicit laughter but will make you cry as well. This is not available for us people not in Korea, but I suggest you watch his previous films like Sassy Girl, Hello Ghost, Speedy Scandal, Highway Star and a lot more. Plus, he's worked with top stars like Jun Ji-hyun, Son Ye-jin (twice), Song Hye-kyo, Kim Sun Ah and a host of other top actresses.